Briar Preparatory Academy

It All Spells Disaster

Joe POV

"I want you to kill her." Jasper says, lighting a cigarette and holding it between his index and middle finger. He eyes me quizzically and watches my every move. I stand in front of his desk, my hands clasped behind my back. But when he says those words, it takes all my willpower to not run away. I don't know how to respond, so I grit my teeth together and raise my chin. "Joe?"

"Sir--"

"I have thought about it for some time, and I have come to the conclusion that she is completely and utterly useless."

I say nothing, many thoughts running wild in my head as I process what he's saying to me.

"And when someone becomes useless, the easiest way to dispose of them is a bullet to the head... Wouldn't you agree?"

"Yes sir." I tell him, my hands are shaking behind my back. What have I just agreed to? She isn't useless, she is strong. She isn't uncooperative, she's loyal. "But sir, why me?"

Jasper lifts the cigarette to his mouth and cocks his head to the side slightly. "If you think that I haven't been watching you lately, then you're wrong. I know when something is affecting you. I know that girl is screwing with your mind. And I'm afraid that she has started to turn you against me. Would I be wrong to assume so?"

I swallow. "My loyalties lie with you, sir. No one else."

"Mmm," Jasper casts his eyes to the ceiling and grins slightly, "I hope you haven't forgotten that. Tell me, what has that girl done for you? What has she given to you?"

So much more than you've ever given me. I say to myself. I bite my tongue and look up to meet his eyes. "Nothing."

"I agree," Jasper says, "Or at least she hasn't given you anything beneficial anyways."

Wrong. My hands become fists behind my back. Jasper leans forward. "But what have I given you, Jonathan?"

I hesitate. "More than I deserve."

Jasper nods his head. "So you know that your loyalties lie with the person that cares for you most."

You don't care for me. You never did. You're just stuck with me. "Of course, sir."

"Then prove it to me." Joe relaxes into his chair and continues to watch me. My heart is beating so incredibly fast. He wants me to kill her. He wants me to kill Celeste.

"I will." I tell him, hardening my nerves and standing up straighter and locking my emotions away, just as I have been taught to do. I hold my breath, waiting for a reaction.

"Good." He says, leaning back in his chair and propping his feet on his desk, his eyes piercing into mine and searching my face for a reaction. A hard silence passes between us as he looks me up and down, his eyes taking me in scanning me.

"I see you've been taking your medication again." He tells me, glancing at me again to see what I will say.

"Yes sir." I say the words and suddenly remember why I have to take the medication in the first place. The events are permanently engraved in my head like words chiseled in stone.

"Hold on Joe this is going to get rough!" Jasper yells to me as we peel out onto the highway from the service road going the wrong way. I had moved in with him a while ago and am used to constantly being on the run. It's become what I'm accustomed to.

I grip the handle on the car tightly, my body jerking back and forth with every turn in the car. "Why are they after us?!" I yell to Jasper over the screeching of tires and the banging of gunfire.